Exploding Technicolor Shrimp Chips

Shrimp chips (actually made from tapioca, says Alan408) are like popcorn, but more fun. When you buy them, they look like multi-colored plastic. But “when placed into a frying pan full of hot oil, they bubble at the edges for a moment or two, then suddenly puff up to resemble Styrofoam—or maybe a better description would be pork rinds,” says Deenso.

KevinB says his kids love watching shrimp chips “explode” dramatically in the wok as they fry. “My grandmother used to purchase these to entertain me when I was young,” says JungMann. “The magical Technicolor pop and puff of the chips as they hit the hot oil stunned me.”

The cheaper brands of shrimp chips might be tasteless, but they should have some flavor of prawn, says JungMann. But they’re not really about the taste, says Deenso: “the fun of eating them was in the prep and watching the transformation.”

Like popcorn, you can get shrimp chips already fried and pre-puffed in bags, but that’s not nearly as much fun. Also like popcorn, “an easy way of ‘frying’ them is to nuke them in the microwave,” says jadec.